![\"Paul](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/0_Feyenoord-FC-v-Celtic-FC-UEFA-Europa-League-202526-League-Phase-MD5.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThe interim boss has been forced to take charge of the January shopping with eye-opening admission of Hoops failings<\/p>\n
Paul Tisdale(Image: SNS Group)<\/p>\n
Martin O\u2019Neill has revealed he has been the one left orchestrating Celtic\u2019s<\/a> transfer business as he admits the champions are playing catch-up to Hearts and Rangers.<\/p>\n The Irishman revealed the Hoops are closing on targets including Lorient striker Mohamed Bamba<\/a> but he understands fans are getting nervous at the lack of arrivals with rivals Rangers<\/a> and Hearts<\/a> already tooling up for the run in.<\/p>\n O\u2019Neill<\/a> has been forced to take charge of signings \u2013 with help from assistants Shaun Maloney and Mark Fotheringham \u2013 as he laid bare the mess left behind by binned recruitment chief Paul Tisdale<\/a>.<\/p>\n Celtic are gearing up for a huge fortnight and O\u2019Neill said: \u201cI agree, it is vital, I\u2019m well aware I\u2019m not going to minimise it. I promise I am not sitting on my backside, I\u2019m trying my best. I\u2019d be very hopeful of bringing a few in. I am in the process of looking at these.<\/p>\n \u201cAway back in my first spell as manager, I had time to do that before I was bringing people in. I had that all prepared. Unfortunately, it\u2019s me, and haven\u2019t got this prepared now at this minute. Because I had Christmas at home, not expecting this.<\/p>\n \u201cYes, things have been put to me and I\u2019m trying to do as much as I can. \u201cEventually, I may just have to rely on someone else\u2019s judgement, like Shaun\u2019s or Fozzy or someone else, and then go for it. I\u2019m not saying something here now, so that three months down the line I\u2019m doing an interview saying \u2018well, it was their fault.\u2019 No, it\u2019ll be down to me.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a difficult one. If Rangers and Hearts have had a head start then, at this minute, I can\u2019t do much about that.<\/p>\n Celtic boss Martin O’Neill(Image: SNS Group)<\/p>\n \u201cYou’re just dealing with one at a time. Honestly, we’ll get some people in. \u201cIt’s just that when you mention about Rangers and Hearts and I go out of here, oh, good Lord. You don’t make me feel great!\u201d<\/p>\n O\u2019Neill has been left to source and sign players \u2013 while also keeping Celtic on track in the title race.<\/p>\n The boss said: \u201cWell, we’re sharing it, but eventually it’ll be done. But there’s only so many calls I can make in a day. But we are actually furiously working. It doesn’t sound as if it’s me having some tea and relaxing here and things.<\/p>\n \u201cOnce you leave here, I’ll be back up on the phone again. The games have become so important for us. The margin of error is so small now as we can\u2019t catch up those matches we\u2019ve lost. So the games become a real focus.\u201d<\/p>\n O\u2019Neill won\u2019t flinch if the right permanent deal is available but he\u2019s mainly shopping in the loan market.<\/p>\n And he\u2019d love a blockbuster move like the swoop for Wales superstar Craig Bellamy during his first spell at the club.<\/p>\n O\u2019Neil said: \u201cCraig was relatively decent in that he had a fall-out with the manager of Newcastle at the time (Graeme Souness). He wanted to come to us so it was pretty straightforward. And as it turned out, he was great for us during those few months.<\/p>\n \u201cBut listen, it’s a changing world, isn’t it? I’ve naturally been searching around for it. There’s a couple of players that I like and I’ve spoken to the clubs and seen the possibility.<\/p>\n \u201cBut they are also needing to get people in. But then there’s only so many days you can hang on to something that might not materialise. I don’t want to be kind of stuck on that last day, if that’s the case.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are loads of players out there, and a lot of the players you\u2019d want as you believe they\u2019d definitely improve things, you have to do some work for it. Now some other teams may be ploughing on.<\/p>\n \u201cBut clubs like Rangers must have known about the players they\u2019re signing. Their manager, during a period of time, have known about them. And I didn\u2019t know. Don\u2019t get me wrong, I am getting help in the background here which I need, obviously.<\/p>\n \u201cBut if it\u2019s not people for a long-term process for us \u2013 and it\u2019s players who can help and see us over the line for the next few months \u2013 then that\u2019s something we\u2019d be doing.\u201d<\/p>\n O\u2019Neill is also braced for bids for his own players with Daizen Maeda, Callum McGregor and Reo Hatate all linked with moves<\/p>\n But he said: \u201cI\u2019ll see what happens. I\u2019m not desperate to let anyone go. But if something comes in that I think suits the club and I have a replacement then it\u2019s not a problem. I\u2019d like to get players in before we think about players going out.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The interim boss has been forced to take charge of the January shopping with eye-opening admission of Hoops…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":694431,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4100],"tags":[2628,7184,94,26603,79673,192921,1638,7081,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-694430","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-celtic-fc","9":"tag-celtic-transfer-news","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-graeme-souness","12":"tag-martin-oneill","13":"tag-paul-tisdale","14":"tag-scottish-premiership","15":"tag-scottish-professional-football-league","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115891081451705038","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=694430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694430\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/694431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=694430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=694430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=694430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Celtic](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/0_Celtic-FC-Media-Access.jpg\")
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